Fire Lake

[Dan]

My generation (get off my lawn!) spent hours dissecting the meaning of Don McLean's The Day The Music Died. Having thoroughly analyzed the lyrics to that song, many have moved on to a new target: Fire Lake by Bob Seger.

Who's gonna ride that chrome three wheeler
Who's gonna make that first mistake
Who wants to wear those gypsy leathers
All the way to Fire Lake

The meaning of the lyrics to Fire Lake seems impenetrable by many, but growing up in blue-collar Buffalo, I always got I get a Rust Belt blue-collar cottage country vibe from the song. When I was growing up in the 1970s, it seemed like every other auto plant or steel mill worker had a small cottage out in the boonies somewhere, many on a large pond (Silver Lake, Rushford Lake, Cuba Lake, etc), Chautauqua Lake, or Lake Erie. The white collar crowd vacationed in more exotic locations, while the blue collar Joes spent weekends at the lake.

Who wants to break the news about Uncle Joe
You remember Uncle Joe
He was the one afraid to cut the cake
Who wants to tell poor Aunt Sarah
Joe's run off to Fire Lake

Bob Seger is from Detroit. Michigan is known for having perhaps the strongest blue collar "cottage culture" in the Great Lakes region. The song may seem mysterious, but to my ears, it all goes back to weekends at the cottage on some Rust Belt lake.

[Maister]

By virtue of cultural geography I guess I'm a Bob Seger 'fan' in much the same way that Dan is 'Catholic', so naturally I have had much (over)exposure to Mr. Seger's works over the years.
Bob Seger is an artist whose songs have largely focused on both the (personally) experiential and blue collar culture (e.g. Main Street, Turn the Page), I would have to agree that Fire Lake is almost certainly referring to factory rats cutting loose on the weekends out to their cottages on the lake, but the Biblical reference is no accident either. The sinful of course get cast into a lake of fire, and the afterlife reference dual meaning is made more clear when you consider the line "who wants to play those eights and aces" (dead man's hand). What would be a complete mistake, though, is to conclude that the song had anything to do with the singer making any moral judgements. Quite the opposite, I'm convinced Fire Lake in a nutshell says "we all cut loose and had some great times drinking, ridin' bikes, playing cards, and getting laid on the highway to Hell"

[ofos]

By virtue of cultural geography I guess I'm a Bob Seger 'fan' in much the same way that Dan is 'Catholic', so naturally I have had much (over)exposure to Mr. Seger's works over the years.
Bob Seger is an artist whose songs have largely focused on both the (personally) experiential and blue collar culture (e.g. Main Street, Turn the Page), I would have to agree that Fire Lake is almost certainly referring to factory rats cutting loose on the weekends out to their cottages on the lake, but the Biblical reference is no accident either. The sinful of course get cast into a lake of fire, and the afterlife reference dual meaning is made more clear when you consider the line "who wants to play those eights and aces" (dead man's hand). What would be a complete mistake, though, is to conclude that the song had anything to do with the singer making any moral judgements. Quite the opposite, I'm convinced Fire Lake in a nutshell says "we all cut loose and had some great times drinking, ridin' bikes, playing cards, and getting laid on the highway to Hell"

I agree. Seger has blue collar angst in his songs, but not moral judgements. Of course, my youth was spread across southern Michigan too.

[hilldweller]

I don't think I've ever listened to a Bob Seger song and thought- "man those are some really deep lyrics!", but then again I've pretty much only heard his "hits" like "Nite Moves", "Turn the Page", and "Main Street". The songs I've heard are well-written enough, but there's a certain plodding, overly-nostalgic melancholy to them that I find incredibly boring. Maybe it's a generational thing, I dunno.

[Maister]

I don't think I've ever listened to a Bob Seger song and thought- "man those are some really deep lyrics!", but then again I've pretty much only heard his "hits" like "Nite Moves", "Turn the Page", and "Main Street". The songs I've heard are well-written enough, but there's a certain plodding, overly-nostalgic melancholy to them that I find incredibly boring. Maybe it's a generational thing, I dunno.

Seger makes no bones about it. He's mawkishly sentimental, in a badass blue collar kinda way.

[ursus]

Whenever I hear "Against the Wind" I get this really stupid look on my face. Even when I was a little kid and it would come on the radio and my siblings would say "Look, he's going into the trance!"

or.....maybe there is a stupid look on my face all the time and other people notice it when I hear "Against the Wind". Nah.

[hilldweller]

Seger makes no bones about it. He's mawkishly sentimental, in a badass blue collar kinda way.

C'mon, there's nothing badass about the guy. He's the poor man's Springsteen, is what he is

[ofos]

Whenever I hear "Against the Wind" I get this really stupid look on my face. Even when I was a little kid and it would come on the radio and my siblings would say "Look, he's going into the trance!"

or.....maybe there is a stupid look on my face all the time and other people notice it when I hear "Against the Wind". Nah.

You know, if you didn't hang your head out the car window with your mouth open and your tongue waving, people might not take notice.